Are they getting better? Looking at Austin FC's 2024 summer signings one year in

In the summer of 2024, Austin FC sporting director Rodolfo Borrell brought in Osman Bukari, Mikkel Desler, and Oleksandr Svatok to the roster – a key inflection point in Borrell's reclamation project, which would include a new head coach search three months later.

Only one of the three players got an awkward mid-afternoon welcome party at the Continental Club, but all three have elevated to the starting rotation, and despite some goals added quibbles with one of them, they're all arguably essential to their current status as a playoff-bound team.

But how are they growing and evolving one year in? To answer that, I do it one of my favorite ways for you today – hit up FBref and explore some charts and tables.

Osman Bukari

First off, let's review how to pronounce his name.

And now, with my twice-a-year soapbox moment in which I favor BOO-ca-ree (with the lightest of first syllable accenting) over Boo-CAR-ee, to approximate how I heard him say it when I asked him when he first got to Austin, let's look at how he's doing this year.

And now, let's look at his 2025 (in red) vs. his limited minutes in 2024 (in blue).

Again, while it's limited minutes in 2024, there's a bit more defensive work in his game reflected and a little more shooting, but a little down on three of the stats that you're like to see Bukari excel in as an ostensibly playmaking winger: shot-creating actions, assists, and non-penalty expected goals plus expected assisted goals (npxG+xAG).

(He is still just a shade under the top third for attacking midfielders and wingers in FBref's Men's Next 14 Competitions, which groups MLS and Liga MX with second-tier European leagues like the English Championship, Eredivisie, and Spanish Segunda. And he's best in possession, though surprisingly low for successful take-ons, given what we've seen him do in recent weeks.

Speaking of recent weeks, look at his uptick in numbers in the last four matches, starting with the one against the Revs.

In 29 appearances and 22 starts in all comps, he's gotten a quarter of his shot-creating actions, a third of his goal-creating actions, and close to a quarter of his total touches in those most recent four matches. The numbers are telling me what my eyes are telling me. To borrow from the Beastie Boys, "Yo, I think he's starting to peak now, Al."

Mikkel Desler

Remember that Desler missed a good chunk of the season with injury, so we're looking at limited minutes in both seasons, but we already have a good sense of his fundamental soundness. Here's how his game translates to cold hard stats.

Those are outstanding pass completion, clearance, and tackle numbers, and those are also reasonably robust offensive stats for a fullback. Here's how those 780 minutes compare to 2024's 489 minutes.

There's not the defensive consistency all across the board that there was last year, though the clearance numbers and offensive numbers took quite a jump up.

Here's something else I found amusing.

That's All-Star Guilherme Biro at the very top of this list!

Oleksandr Svatok

So, remember in the goals added article (and on the recent Emergency Podcast[[1]]), when we talked about Svatok being a capable center back even though goals added didn't rate him much? Here's what we meant.

This is what he's done this year so far.

Also, he did play a little over 400 minutes in 2024, which was apparently not enough to give him a 2024 chart, but those minutes did get folded into his Last 365 Days chart, so we can look at that to get a sense of his evolution.

Based on this, he's up in clearances and tackles, and a bit down in interceptions, but still has solid numbers there, and though he's not completing as many passes (or even attempting more passes), he's getting more touches. This is pretty commiserate with what you see on the field; he'll stop attacks and dispense with the ball, and that's pretty much his game. He's not going to do a lot on the offensive end, but even when paired with Brandon Hines-Ike (and definitely when paired with Julio Cascante), he's the more stay-at-home center back.

Guilherme Biro

Biro came in the winter window at the start of 2024, so we can do this same exercise with him.

Those are absurdly good numbers in three of four defensive categories, and he also does a decent amount of chance creation. (Looking deeper into the stats, he's also in the 91st percentile for the very specific category of goal-creating actions by drawing fouls, which I just find amusing.)

Here's how he compares to 2024 Biro.

That's a pretty profound shift from being more of a one-on-one player (the "successful take-ons" part of that chart) to being more defensive-minded and also doing better to set up teammates to score.

And, of course, while he hasn't had the most conventional route to the All-Star Game, he didn't look out of place in his brief time on the field. While Desler arguably had a bit more growth in his game based on the comparison chart, Austin FC is better set at both fullback spots, comparing this year to last year.

There's one more player I want to check out, though, just because of the hype he's been getting, including from me.

Owen Wolff

I tell fellow media people from around the league, especially when doing question exchanges, that Owen Wolff is making The Leap this year, and a lot of that is pure eye test, as well as the early-season assists he was racking up. Is he making the leap, though, according to the charts?

Here's 2025 Wolff.

So, Wolff's not a 10, but he's doing some 10-adjacent things well. He's good at moving the ball forward, both dribbling and passing, and moving the ball against defenders. He's in an appreciably good place with assists and shot-creating actions.

One weird thing: His pass completion numbers aren't great, but they're appreciably better if you compare him to attacking mids and wingers – where he's been playing more this year – than midfielders, which I believe has a lot to do with attacking mids and wingers attempting more passes into the box where defenders are stationed.

So, here's 2025 Wolff compared to a year ago, using midfield numbers for both.

With the exception of clearances and blocks being different — and the drop in clearances might be because 2024 had some fullback minutes in there as well — you see where the perceptible if not dramatic changes are. He's better on the ball, he's upping his offense numbers, and there's a spike in blocks.

It's improvement to be sure. And with Wolff turning 21 on Dec. 30[[2]], we could be watching a player ascending appreciably over the next few years as he approaches his peak years — whether it's with Austin FC or a European team that wants to see how his MLS-honed game translates to their league.

[[1]]: Which featured my new one-act play "GAM Burrito," which might be the funniest two minutes, including the set-up, in Emergency Podcast history.

[[2]]: He's at 110 league appearances and can't even legally drink for another four and a half months!

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